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Thursday, September 02, 2010

painted puzzle tutorial

Recently I gathered some fun things for a birthday package that I was putting together to send off to my friend's little girl. While doing my weekly browsing at Target's dollar bin, I came across a puzzle for $1 and suddenly had the idea to paint over it to make a brand new colorful kids puzzle to include in the package. This puzzle was super easy and would actually make a great project create with kids!

I started with the puzzle- how boring was it before?!?!?

I painted over everything with acrylic paint.

Tip- mix a little white paint with your color to get better coverage when painting over something with dark images.

I painted over the base and the frame of the puzzle

and let it all dry.

Once everything was dry, I took apart the puzzle just to make sure that nothing was sticking to each other.

Another tip- when painting a cheaper chipboard or cardboard puzzle- keep your brush dry (don't dip in water) and keep the paint thin. Too much moisture will cause the puzzle pieces to expand and contract.

I put the puzzle back together...ummm...this took me forever...I am NOT a puzzle person!

I then started to cover the surface with drawings ( I decided on a surface full of my favorite flower designs)

Next I filled the flowers with color.

Once the entire surface was filled and the paint was dry I used a thin coat of gel matte medium (Claudine Hellmuth's FABULOUS gel medium to be exact!) to seal everything.

VIOLA! A super cute, one of a kind kids puzzle! A perfect gift!

Of course I couldn't resist taking it apart and putting it back together.

It took me forever and my husband had to step in and finish it for me :)

This is *such* a great idea. I was just trying to think of something fun to make my friend's daughter (she's turning 5) for her birthday. I will definitely have to hit up Target to see if I can find a little puzzle to paint myself. I'm not that artistic but I don't think a 5-year-old will be too harsh a judge. And in my experience, people are too surprised that you took the time to hand-make a gift to worry about how talented you are (or aren't in my case). Thanks for another fabulous project. I love your work.

I'm thinking that this would make a great gift for an adult. The big problem with doing one with a 500 piece puzzle is putting it together in the first place, but I think I'll try. Thanks for the inspiration.... AGAIN!

This is *such* a great idea. I was just trying to think of something fun to make my friend's daughter (she's turning 5) for her birthday. I will definitely have to hit up Target to see if I can find a little puzzle to paint myself. I'm not that artistic but I don't think a 5-year-old will be too harsh a judge. And in my experience, people are too surprised that you took the time to hand-make a gift to worry about how talented you are (or aren't in my case). Thanks for another fabulous project. I love your work.

Oh my goodness! This is one of the greatest projects I've seen. I have a 4 yr old granddaughter who lives 9 hours away and I'm always looking for fun things to send to her in the mail. I think I will paint on a puzzle for her and personalize it with her name fancied up. Just LOVE this creative idea.

I teach craft classes in the Philippines and will use this idea for one of my classes some time this year. I'll link back to you once I post pictures of what the children did! Have to find cheap puzzles first! Thanks for all the good ideas, I do love your blog!